Methods and systems for third-party approval of secure account fund transfer

Abstract

A method and system of delegating control to a surrogate for a primary account holder so that the surrogate can control access to funds in a joint account by a secondary account holder when the primary account holder is unavailable. The surrogate's ability to approve or deny the secondary account holder's requests for funds is limited by rules established by the primary account holder. The system includes a secure management account system that implements communications between the surrogate's personal device, the primary account holder's personal device, the secondary account holder's personal device and the financial institution holding the joint account.

I claim: 
     
       1. A method for providing responses in real time to fund transfer requests submitted by a secondary account holder of a joint account at a financial institution, wherein the joint account is controlled by a primary account holder, comprising:
 delegating responsibilities for responding to fund transfer requests to a plurality of surrogates when the primary account holder is unavailable; 
 determining that the primary account holder is unavailable by transmitting a ping to a first mobile computing device associated with the primary account holder and either having the ping interrupted or receiving no response in real time from the first mobile computing device in response to the ping; 
 transmitting fund transfer requests from a second mobile computing device associated with the secondary account holder to a plurality of third mobile computing devices each associated with one of the plurality of surrogates upon determining that the primary account holder is unavailable; 
 assigning the responsibilities for responding to the fund transfer requests to each of the plurality of surrogates commensurate with at least one of each of their experience and expertise with respect to various different categories of transaction of each of the fund transfer requests, by ranking the plurality of surrogates according to a match between the category of transaction of the fund transfer request and their experience and expertise; 
 displaying each fund transfer request on one or more of the third mobile computing devices; 
 providing an approve box and a deny box on a display of the third mobile computing device so that the surrogate can respond to each fund transfer request; 
 the surrogate responding to each fund transfer request by pressing one of the approve box and the deny box on the display of the third mobile computing device; 
 the third mobile computing device transmitting the surrogate's response to each fund transfer request to the second mobile computing device; 
 the secondary account holder using a chip card associated with the financial institution to transfer funds requested by the fund transfer request; and 
 the third mobile computing device transmitting instructions to the financial institution to disburse funds from the joint account whenever the surrogate activates the approve box for each fund transfer request. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the surrogate's response is transmitted to the second mobile computing device through an account management service. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 2 , wherein the account management service comprises a secure gateway configured to transmit the surrogate's response to the financial institution. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising providing a third box on the display of the third mobile computing device configured to activate transmittance of a request by the surrogate for a rationale for each of the fund transfer requests. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the step of delegating responsibilities for responding to the fund transfer requests to a surrogate includes the primary account holder designating a plurality of ranked surrogates; and
 the method further comprises determining that one of the plurality of ranked surrogates is available by transmitting pings to the third mobile computing device associated with the surrogate, the determination occurring in order of the ranking of the surrogates and ending when a surrogate with a highest rank is found to be available. 
 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the funds transfer request is withdrawing cash from an automated teller machine, and the method includes initiating the funds transfer by inserting the chip card into the automated teller machine. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 ,
 wherein assigning the responsibilities for responding to the fund transfer requests to each of the plurality of surrogates is redundant across the various different categories of transaction such that more than one of the plurality of surrogates is assigned to each of the various different categories of transaction. 
 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the primary account holder is an insurance company. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the primary account holder is an insurance company, and the funds transfer request includes making a purchase and charging the purchase to the insurance company. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the primary account holder has set a first expense limit and a second expense limit on the fund transfer requests, and any of the fund transfer requests for funds below the first expense limit is automatically approved, and any of the fund transfer requests between the first and second expense limits is only automatically approved if no surrogate responds in real time to the fund transfer requests. 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the fund transfer requests for certain categories are automatically approved as long as they fall below certain expense limits for the category corresponding to each of the fund transfer requests.